Building on R.I. successes

On the theory that you can’t sell yourself to others unless you’d buy the product yourself, Rhode Island hopes to buck itself up with a new slogan: “It’s All in Our Backyard.”The Rhode Island Foundation...

Comment

Posted Aug. 4, 2013 @ 12:01 am

On the theory that you can’t sell yourself to others unless you’d buy the product yourself, Rhode Island hopes to buck itself up with a new slogan: “It’s All in Our Backyard.”

The Rhode Island Foundation will finance most of the campaign, which involves no tax dollars and originated with its “Make It Happen” forum last September. The foundation will spread the good word through billboards on roads and commercials on TV and radio.

The good word is that a lot of good things go on right in our own backyard that many Rhode islanders are unaware of.

For example, one commercial will feature Hope Global, of Cumberland, which makes shoelaces that it ships to China, where U.S. manufacturers of Red Wing and Timberland shoes are fed up with Chinese shoelaces that break.

Did you know that? Few of us do.

Another ad will feature an innovative petri dish invented by Brown University researcher Jeffrey Morgan that makes it easier to grow models of human tissue. The dish is made in Cranston.

But Rhode Islanders are cynical, and there are many old slogans in Rhode Island’s history that obviously did not work. Unlike most prior publicity campaigns, however, this one addresses itself to people who live in the Ocean State, not to outsiders who might visit or move here or bring jobs here.

Rhode Island has great natural and manmade beauty, excellent ports, fine universities, top-notch restaurants and easy access to other great places like Boston and New York. These are things other states would love to be able to build upon. What we most lack is a vibrant economy.

This campaign is obviously not intended to replace ongoing efforts to correct what is wrong about Rhode Island. “We’re not sugar-coating reality,” says Foundation President Neil Steinberg.

Still, fixing our economy and reforming our politics will require a civic energy that can be sapped by pessimism over the consistent failure of the state’s leaders to address the business climate.

“It’s All In Our Backyard” is an injection of optimism. In trying to make things better, we should never forget the tremendous strengths of Rhode Island and the remarkable people here who fight every day to be productive and creative.